As the school year begins anew for the Church in the United States, a familiar image comes to mind: teachers organizing classrooms and prepping unit plans while students and parents snip uniform tags and check items off annual school supply lists. There is a certain nostalgia at this time of
Humor is a nearly impossible topic to write about, and I am perhaps the worst person to even attempt it. I am not a professional writer. I am a one-man communications team for a small university academic center, and my center’s particular mission does not involve regularly telling jokes. We
At age sixteen, novelist Katherine Anne Porter entered the Roman Catholic Church because she thought she was in love. In reality, she just wanted to get out of her small hometown. Her marriage to John Henry Koontz did not last and the Catholicism did not stick until much later in
Jesuit Father Edward Dowling (1898-1960), although not an alcoholic himself, is beloved among members of Twelve-Step programs for his ministry to members of Alcoholics Anonymous and others seeking to overcome unwanted habits. He rescued A.A. co-founder Bill Wilson from debilitating depression and gave him the spiritual guidance he needed to bring
In October 1991, workers in Lower Manhattan accidentally discovered a burial ground dating back to the seventeenth century that contained the intact remains of 419 Black people. They were taken to Howard University for anthropological examination and, in 2003, returned to Manhattan to be solemnly reburied in what is now
Historian Lynn White, in an often-quoted article, “The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis” (linked here), blames Christianity for the ecological crisis. According to White: Christianity inherited from Judaism . . . a striking story of creation. . . . God planned all [of creation] for man’s benefit and rule:
The future of Catholic journalism is of great interest to me. This fact may surprise you, since I am neither a journalist nor a communications professional. I am a sacramental theologian whose doctoral work focused on liturgical formation in Augustine of Hippo. Yet, it is the doctor of grace himself who
Some two years ago, I attended the Called and Co-Responsible conference at the University of Notre Dame. It was a conference about the role of the laity in the Church. One of the speakers, Fr. Michael Sweeny, O.P. made two insightful statements in his talk that resonated deeply with my